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Lost Type: The finest pay-what-you-wish type foundry

Every designer knows that typography is one of the most important tools in his or her arsenal, but quality type can be horribly pricy. Don’t believe me? Check out Hoefler & Frere-Jones‘ set of fonts, which commonly start at $200+ per font family.

Now, don’t get me wrong. Type designers most definitely should be paid for their work. And the pricing at foundries like Hoefler & Frere-Jones is reasonable, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t also completely inaccessible for many new and underpaid designers. For anyone tight on money, there are solutions out there and Lost Type may be your best bet for free and inexpensive display fonts.

From the creators:

Founded by Riley Cran and Tyler Galpin, originally in a whirlwind 24 hour adventure to distribute a single typeface, Lost Type has blossomed into a full fledged foundry, distributing fonts from designers all over the world, with its unique model.

Lost type isn’t exactly free; it just allows you to pay what you wish for each of its font families. So, if you sincerely can’t pay anything, then that’ll do. But if you don’t mind buying the designers a cup of coffee (or 20 cups of coffee), a small donation is welcome.

You can browse all of Lost Type’s font families here. It’s genuinely hard to find a favorite, because they are all so unique. Lost Type also continues to build it’s collection, as it started with only a few families in early 2011. Some of my favorites include Ribbon, Homestead, Ranger and Highlands.